Best. Concert. Ever

Last night, I got to redeem my birthday present.  David took me to see David Crowder*Band at the Long Center in Lafayette.  First of all, it is a BEAUTIFUL theatre.  Very small and old-looking, with the old school marquee out front.  Since this is Crowder's last tour we paid a couple of extra dollars to get "VIP" tickets.  This just means that we got in 30 minutes early.  Normally, this isn't a big deal, but this show was open admission/seating, so getting there early was really nice in getting a good seat.  We sat in the 9th row, right in the middle, which was uh-mazing.

Disclaimer:  These pictures are awful.  All I had was my cell phone, and it's not really set up to take good pictures.  And I KNOW this is breaking all kinds of blogging rules by posting terribly fuzzy pictures, but I had to have proof of how close I was and how cool the stage looked.

Instead of one opening act, this show had 3.  First up was John Mark McMillan.  If you've never heard of him, he is the guy who wrote "How He Loves".  His voice is very distinct, almost like an old country singer, but the words to his songs are so poetic.  He sang one song called "Murdered Son" that made me cry.  I was really impressed with John Mark.  He didn't seem to be putting on a show; he was just sharing his heart.  (Sidenote:  one of his guitar players looked a little like Willy Wonka.  Purple coat with tails.  hmmmm. . .)

 Next up was Chris August.  Now, I must confess that I didn't know who Chris August was until he sang his last song, "Starry Night", which got lots of airplay on Christian radio.  Before the show, I was standing in the aisle talking to my friends Bre and Hannah, and Chris was right next to me, signing autographs.  I seriously had no idea, and then Bre says, "Hey, that's Chris August."  I didn't want to look stupid, so I totally faked knowing him.  Then I looked around and realized that dozens of people were taking his picture, and it looked like he and I were together, so I leaned over to him and said, "I hope all of these people don't mind me being in all of their pictures of you."  He said, "Are you kidding?  I was just standing next to you so I could be in all of their pictures of you."  Ha!  So we linked arms, turned, and let a bunch of people (who have no idea who I am) take our picture.  Later, when I told Bre and Hannah that I had no idea who he was they thought it was hilarious!  So, now I like to think Chris and I are new BFF's.

The last opening act was Gungor. Without being too biased, I will say that Gungor blew the other two opening acts away.  They were incredible.  Seriously, incredible.  They didn't bring their whole band, so they did an acoustic set.  All three of the members who were there were amazing.  The cellist beatboxed while he was playing cello AT THE SAME TIME and the lead singer (Mr. Gungor--I don't know what his first name is) played guitar, mandolin, sang, and played the drum with his foot.  And Mrs. Gungor played xylophone, squeeze box, organ, and sang.  They were SOOOOOOO good! Their music is so elevated, it was hard to take in all of the things going on in a song.

And then there was Crowder.

Sigh.

David (Wittenbach, not Crowder) and I have been long time fans of David Crowder.  We have most of their albums, and have so many memories of their songs.  It was kind of bittersweet to see them for the last time, but it was wonderful.  They played oldies like "There is No One Like You" and "O Praise Him" as well as some of their new songs.  They also played a couple of bluegrass numbers that were really fun and shared a couple of songs from their Christmas album.  They played for 2 hours!  One of the best parts was when they sang "How He Loves", and John Mark McMillan, Chris August, and Mr. Gungor came back to join the band.  Incredible.

Last night I was reminded of a few things:

1.  Date nights are fun.
2.  Music is an awesome gift from God when we choose to give it back to Him.
3.  I need to play my guitar more often, especially if Chris August ever needs a back-up singer.